September 1997 Issue 1 2 £2.50 TH E--­ 9 771364 763009 EDI TOR ' S LETTER he con troversial and influential play age nt , Margaret Ram say - who died in 199 1 at the age of 93 - and is the secbject of Peggy, an exemplar)' new biography by Colin C hambers (ret'iewed b)' Rh oda Koenig in the August Arrlause ! tcas outspoken on practically every issue conn ected tvith th e theatre, cmd held dogmatic, albeit contradictor), view:; on life, love, marriage, talent , art and an )' thing else ;:OL I care to name, Critics, 0/ co urse, <I ere eas), targets (though she held in high esteem the late Har old Hobson of the Sill1,l.1:, Ti mes l( hose: o/)inions, on occasion, she unashamedly influenced), Tn -l l1 <.J r~ Clwmb.>rs , p ~ rr " Ramsay felt that cri tics, by definiton, had 'to be punch-drunk (( 'iell 11lJr LJ:! ' !(,dHSe he\ S(l tr so much bad theatre and therefore did not receive secf[icient Il l) l!ri, hllltr, ; , , Ac hc' ' ,lm~ ti me, Ramsay maintained, critics 'need food like the l'es t of us, I h(l ~ L !!l't:lll ,: mr,lIl1\ fu r chem, On the whole they 're ol<.a)' and th e)' hand ow a kind of rough ]IISf! Ce , TIE:, ; r ) [h, theatre ever)' night and see mostly awful things, poor buggers, I'd rather spend un h ';11 :'oJing (l pia )' than sit for ttvo-and-a-half hOecrs watching one, ' Th, Y c' c: I: I-en0 self-res pec ting professional Tet'iewer of any reaso nable dmation who , at r2!!l lhr in <T ~ Jls , does not feel sim ilarly inclined, And who can blame them? The reality of th e sirt!<lW n c, tilu e, our of every ten new plays that open, maybe three or four are worthy of ,H! ~llii ll l1, And of those three or fow', only one might last longe r than it s initial nm, \'dlLlt a bomcs, therefore, to be able to contradict that gloomy statistic wi th a crop of neu' I urk chat WOLcid appear to gzve the lie to the belief that we're presently going through a kind of eh eatrical doldncms, An)' :;eason that can offer in the co urse of a month or so, Patrick Marber's Closer - as fine (I pla)' as I have seen in years - and David Hare's Amy's View, itself (I cele bration of theatre, has to be exceptional. Add to these Marrin McDonagh's The Cripple of lnishmaan, Mark Ravenhill's Shopping and Fucking, Peter Whelan's The Herbal Bed, and Ya smina Resza's Art (translated by Christopher Ham pton) , and )'OU hat'e (I collec tion of contemporary dranuHic writing that does both the commercial and the subsidised sectors proud, Here's 'sufficient nomi:;hmenr' for even the most jaded of critical palates, Hope )'011 had an enjo)'able summ er. SEPTE BE- 10 <:; 7 :<,PP[A .'o f 3 applause SEPTEMBER 1997 ISS UE 12 contents REGULARS OFFSTAGE GOSSIP 6 ONSTAGE REVIEWS 15 DIARY 22 APPLAUSE THEATRE CLUB 23 NED SHERRIN 31 AUDIO BOOK REVIEW 37 BOOK REVIEW 38 NEW FACES lIZA WALKER 41 SPECTRUM DANCE, TV & OPERA 42 OFFSTAGE BROADWAY GOSSIP 49 COMPENDIUM 50 SHOWS THAT MAKE A DIFFERENCE 50 LORD GRADE -\ n ilHdrellce w;ch ,\ ' -lti Coward . p 35 ~m\l) 11 Rllssell [Jelt/c. p.3 ! THE BODY ELECTRA ZOE WANAMAKER MAn WOLF DOOM & GLOOM LOOM SIMON RUSSELL BEALE INTERVIEW THE DAY I MET••• NOEL COWARD ANDRE LEWIS ROYAL WINNIPEG BALLET ADAM LONG INTERVIEW NICKY JOHNSTON stage As RE f\' rn EP llY \\)I'R NOSEY SERVtlNT a few issues leaving office at the end of the month but perhaps breath. Richardson was due into the Lyric tWO years ago, Lord Ll oyd-Webber's Whistle Down the Wind more eXCiting is the prospect of seeing Tom ago with another Chichesrer show, Th e MIser, but it has nO[ been consigned [0 the dustblO and will be Stoppard on JO Octobet. Aftet (1 year of buffeting seems he got bored en route and the production was re worked by ditector Gale Edwards, responsible for from the ptess, Tom may find the public are mote scrapped. Let's hope th"t Pmero's farce about a the current'revival ,,( Je sus Christ Superstar. Wotk intetested in his alleged affait with Mia Farrow judge who escapes a police raid on an tOn but will starr on the show latet this year with a view to than his latest play. One to mi ss will be Arno ld consequently has to tr\' hIS own bmily, keeps hi[n a West End opening on 30 june, The o nl y question W esker who is invited to talk about the new re vival amused long e nough. that remains is where it will be housed. Large sca le of Chips With Everything a t the National. Wesker is musicals don't appear to be having a partic ularly bound to take the oppottunity to ",hinge about the • •• good time of it at the moment, with Superstar ailing fact that no one perfo rms his latest plays and that ALL IS NOT LOST at the Whitehall, despite the ar the Lyceum, Olil'er' otphaned and destitute at there is a cultural conspir;rcy against him. The only residency of Channel 5's The Jack DochErty Show. the Palladium and Grease due to , lip off in january. genuine conspiracy against Wesker is one founded 1t was tho ught that the venue would 't be used as a The Good Lord seems [0 ha\'e lowered hIS sights for on good judgement. Earlier this yeat the New End theatre agai n until the chat show was axed or Wlli511e Dowl1 th e Wind which is due to open at a ChannelS closed due to lack of intetest. Nl)t so. smallet venue such as the Albery. The programme usua lly fini shes filming at about 7pm and producer Howard Sanditen has decided w • • • ~tQ93e$truck tun The Slow Drag from 9pm. Based o n the true TH F RECOVERY OF JULIA N CLARY'S image continues story of a io n musicion whose own {amtly did nor apace since his careet-rhrecnening and inctedibly know he was a woman until sh e died, the show has funny outburst ahout No rman Lamont's nocturnal DRESS FOR already had cult success on the fringe and will activines a few yeats ago. Ironically, he will be provide id ea l late night fodder. petforming a season at the Vaudeville this THE OCCASION Chri stmas while Lamont will be sitting at home • • • wondering \vhere hIS ow n career went wrong. Character, Period, IT SEEMS THAT THE Rova l Shakespeare Company Pantomime, Suits, will once again be taking over the Young Vic (or a • • • substantial portion of next year. This is a great pIty AMERICA N ACTOR KEVI N SPACEY, mr of The Usual Frocks, Dresswear, - nor because the RSC isn't suited to the venue but Suspects dnd Seven, witlmake his London debut J[ Animal, Showbiz, Cabaret, because many people fo ught tooth and nail in the the Almeida nex t April when he plays the lead role Uniform, Fantasy, early nineties to sa ve the Young Vic as a unique in Howard Davies's production of Eugene O'Neill's producing venue. It now seems to have {allen tOtO The Ic~man Cometh. This looks certain to be one of Wedding and Funeral! the unadventurous trar of becoming 8 receiving the Almeida's "nnlldlmoney-spinners bur Spacey house rhat only produces its own annual and Davies are wking mOre of a risk than one would With accessories to match Christmas show. think. The last time Davies directed The Iceman Cometh ",,1, for the RSC at the Aldwych in the Call Cyril or Alan on • • • mid-seventies. Ian H olm, pla ying the leeman, THE TRANSFER OF DAM N YrlNi.. oES from rhe Adelphi suffeted an astonishing attack of stage fright and 0800 174 114 to the larger Victotia Palace musr go down as on ~ . l didn'r retlltn to the stage {or almost 16 yea ts. rhe great tl1ystenes of rhe commercial theotre. The or visit us at Jetry Lewis vehicle seemed dead in the water ar the • • • 41 Brushfield Street, (otlner venue, r8rely playing to over 60% capacity. THE PROPIJCER5 OF SCISSOR HNPY, opening at the Spitalfields, London E1 6AA Why the producers {eel that the show wil l do better Duchess on 22 October, appeat to he dicing with at a bigger, less central venue is beyond me. Then death, CW at leas t duelling with the British tendency 4 minutes walk from again, making a mUSi cal out ofT S Eliot's feline to \\'~rd s apath". The comedy thriller has bee n Liverpool Street Station poems always struck me as a daft idea. adapted frnm Shear Madness, the longest running non-musical in America, in which a female pianist Mail Order and • • • is murdered in " hairdtess ing sa lon . The catch is courier service available Finolly, Apollo Leisure has avoided the problem <11 that the audience pbys the d etective and is al lowed having a srage covereJ wirh animal excrement in the ask the cast questions in an ~ rtcmpt to teveal the first stage version of Dr Dolilile by hiring jim the murderer. I can imagine a typical British thought it had pulled of( so mething of a coup by Henson Puppets to create all the animals.